Saturday, 23 November 2013

Bike test: Roubaix Stumpjumper FSR 29 EVO

I often wonder can there be any surprise when reading a test of a top-end bike?
How spoiled would you have to be to ditch a 5000s + bike, carbon here,
carbon there, golden stanchions and XTR all over. Journalists may seem hard to trust once you heard of the concept of reciprocity - when you recieve a sweet bike for a test for free, it's hard to be a bastard about it. I'm not journalist and I am not sponsored, so
let me have my "independent" take on a super bike... wait! I got it to test for free... I can't even trust myself!

picture source: Pinkbike.com

This fall I went to London for a study trip
with my architectural office and I decided to take a chance to meet
Steve Jones from Dirt Magazine while being on the other side fo the pond. We chatted online since some time and I wanted to show myself in my Offline form, I wanted to meet a man who might be Jeremy Clarkson of MTB world. He welcomed me to his
house in pictoresque Welsh village near Monmouth, with beautiful view over the hills and... a garden filled with super bikes. Initialy I was supposed to
ride the latest LaPierre Spicy 650B with electronic suspension but there was no way to quickly swap brake levers (Brits ride them on the "wrong" side...) Steve is kind of
my size and weight so I felt no need to play with air pressures or
compression settings, even though he urged me to. I took it for granted that the bike will be well
setup because it was his personal bike, he can surely ride well as has a decent race record, then he's
been through various test camps with world's best bicycle suspension
engineers, and he tested countless bikes.

The
initial parking lot test was already quite positive, bike turned easily
and seemed to remain balanced in S-turns when guided just with my hips.
I noticed that my assumption that 29ers really need carbon
wheels was right. That bike did accelerate well unlike a Niner EMD9 that I used to have with 600g
WTB rims. Because the weight is on a larger diameter you do feel the
increased rotating mass on 29ers much more than on 26ers. An interesting
thing is that Steve uses 35mm stem on it, which I think does wonders
to handling of a "big bike" which has plenty of intrinsic stability due
to BB drop and large wheelbase, compared to 26er. Add slackish Evo geometry and at least on paper, it seems like you are going to ride a cow.

So we headed
to the woods where I've got slightly raped by Welsh mud or rather clay. I've seen mud but this was slip and slide in places. On the
first trail bike felt easy to manouver, but it was the second much more flowy one, where my eye
balls crossed and my face formed into the "Me gusta" meme. I always found
that line to be a bullshit, but here I am saying it: it did not feel
like a 29er at all! At least nothing like my Niner. It was nimble and quite easy to pop - not as much as
26er but still, I was impressed. As I thought, more altitude drop
than my home trails, more speed, and a bit more room between rocks and roots, give such bike enough wings to
show it's potential. The thing that was most apparent to me was that it
seemed that Stumpy Evo had a mind of its own, it was kind of having a
bit of control. There were two bits where I thought, whoops a jump, or
whoops I will wash out the rear end, but the bike kind of said - I got
you covered mate! It was a truly forgiving bike. I'm not a control freak
so I really liked that, especially that every time I wanted to gain
control I had it. It might sound queer but it was a bit like dancing
with a smart girl and I never felt that way on any bike before. It felt
so smooth, the memory of sensation of floating was with me for few days
after. Going uphill was a breeze too, it felt like I had wind into my back (another 29er cliché), something I never felt on my Niner and not even on my 26" Blur TRc super bike.

That puts me to a conclusion that it is very true that it
is not about the wheel diameter, it is about a bike as complete
package. Stumpy 29 Evo is a damn good bike that I would die to try on my
home trails. If I were to move to bigger mountains, I'd swap my Blur for this without a wink of an eye. I guess I am spoiled.I'm glad I remained open minded. So in a way I was not surprised that Stumpy Evo 29 turned out to be a great bike but it completely surprised me in which way it was great. I found a new dimension of bike handling and at the same time I cannot find too much relation to lots nonsense that is written about advantages of 29" wheels. It was just a great, smart bike with a character!

The all important question, do we need super bikes to improve our riding experience? They help! But to pay compliment to Steve and his trails, I'd remember that as a great trip even if I rode my Diamond Back traverse stiffie, and I really mean it. Experience of riding in a new place was just fantastic!